Month: July 2016

Due to the horrible attack in France, and in honor of the lives that were taken, Freebie Friday will be muted. Please, remember to keep their family members and friends in your prayers. France, stay strong. We stand with you.

Good morning, lovelies. As you all know my favorite author of all times is Jessica Sorensen. I admire her writing as well as her work ethic. I’m still not sure how authors such as her, Denise Grover Swank, or Lauren Layne are able to produce books at such a fast pace, but I absolutely admire it. One book that I’m (trying) patiently awaiting the release of is Jessica Sorensen’s What Lies in the Darkness. For more information on one of Jessica’s upcoming releases, click here.

Hey lovelies! I saw this quote floating around on Twitter this past weekend, and it stuck with me. What I love about this is that it has a lot of truth to it. With all of the recent killings that has been going on in the past few months, we as writers have something that no one can take away from us. When the world around us proves to be too hectic or too real, we can use our writing as an escape. We don’t have to limit ourselves to one story, but we don’t have to bog ourselves down with ten; just having this option is what makes the writing world so great. So my advice to you today, writers, are to let go of your fears of not being good enough, not thinking your story matters, or the fear of that no one needs to read your story and just write. You’ll be happy that you did.

Hey, lovelies. It’s been a while, but I’m back with yet another serious post for Freebie Friday. In the past few days you may have seen the names Alton Sterling and Philando Castile trending. There’s footage of one of these men being killed on camera, the aftermath after the other man was shot, a child breaking down during a press conference, and a young girl trying to console her mother while her father is dying in the front seat of a car.

They tell us we’ve come a long way. They say that racism is gone. They say that we have our freedom. Do I believe that? I want to. Sure, we’re all able to go to the same schools, befriend people of the opposite race, and ride to the front of a bus; but if freedom is being able to shoot up a nightclub, shoot a singer during a meet & greet, or shooting two innocent black men, you can keep your freedom, America. I often wonder why our world is like this. And I think I may have the answer.

As black people, we’ve all been grouped together as gangsters, thugs, whores, niggers (yes, I said it)…we’re so much more than this though. Rap music, grills, short shorts, and having to sell drugs to provide for our families has labeled us that way. Police officers killing these innocent black men is NOT okay. The public has no right to talk about our black men not being stand up citizens, and not being in their children’s lives if it’s okay for officers to continue killing them and getting a slap on the wrist as the consequence. Our young black men need their fathers in their lives…stop leaving these poor children fatherless. It’s not okay and it’s not right.

Alton Sterling was from Louisiana, as am I. So knowing that a shooting like this occurred in my state makes me aware that these killings aren’t just limited to Trayvon Martin or Tamir Rice, but it makes me realize that Trayvon or Tamir could’ve been my two nephews; Alton and Philando could’ve been my father or one of my uncles. Since when is it okay for a man of the law to shoot and kill a man for reaching for his license? He told the officers he had a gun and that he had a license for it, yet he was still killed. And for the mayor of Minnesota to say that he think this would’ve played out differently had Philando been a white man, it shows you just how much further we have to go in this world. So how do we solve these issues?

If we want America to take us serious when we say Black Lives Matter, we as black people have to come together, put aside our differences, and stop killing our own kind. We can’t just preach that Black Lives Matter when our kind is killed by a white man, but say “Free my boy Ray Ray” if Ray Ray is in jail for shooting another black man. It doesn’t work that way.

Secondly, we must teach our black children that not all officers are corrupt. I can say that because I have a friend who’s on the force down here, and she’s one of the kindest people I know. The shield doesn’t just protect them, but it protect us as well. Teach our children that it’s okay to go to an officer in a crisis.

Don’t try to “get justice” by taking matters into your own hands. Don’t go around shooting up protests in the name of a person’s life that was taken due to gun violence. You’re adding to the problem…not solving it.

When someone from a different race comes to you and tell you that all lives matter, not just black lives…don’t get enraged. Yes, it’s true all lives matter. But you can’t solve an issue by arguing. Everyone has struggles, so they may not see that it’s harder for a black person to succeed in life. No, instead tell them you fear that your child could become another statistic. Tell them how you fear that you can’t teach your child to defend themselves because an officer may see that as resisting. You can’t teach them to run away in fear of them being shot to death. And you fear that your black son might come off as “big and intimidating” to an officer.

Finally, come together as a whole…black, white, Asian, Hispanic, and make a difference. Don’t just talk about it, be about it. Stop allowing the public to pin us against one another.

I know this post was all over the place, but this world is all over the place. It’s a messed up world. Years back, when the Trayvon Martin shooting occurred, I read this article. It was an article from a mother to a young, black boy. She was asking the parents of a young, white boy to teach their child about how our black children are being killed by the police. She also requested, if our sons are together and they are approached by an officer, please ask your son to stay with mine, and don’t run and leave him stranded. Is the world we’re living in really becoming a place where we have to ask children of the opposite race to walk our children home to ensure they aren’t targeted and gunned to death?

So, again, they say we have our freedom. But are we really free?

This post is dedicated to Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, and the following people listed below. They may no longer be able to speak, but I will continue speaking for them and bringing awareness to the fact that Black Lives Matter. I will continue preaching this with my fist in the air, bringing awareness to it, and making people understand that our black skin isn’t a sin. We’re human too. And if you think this post is racist, officer bashing, or Caucasian bashing, then you’ve completely missed the point.

This post was typed up before the shooting in Dallas occurred. I’m not going to sit here and act like one person’s life matters more than the other. So, this post is also dedicated to the officers whose lives were taken during the Dallas protest last night. Like I said before, all cops aren’t bad. These officers were trying to protect protesters from the gunshots. We have to end this violence now, or else we’ll never be able to move forward in this world.